1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus, an exposure control method, and a computer-readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional technologies for controlling exposure in an image capturing apparatus such as a digital camera include a multi-zone metering method that divides a captured image captured and acquired by the image capturing apparatus into a plurality of photometric areas (one example of an image area) and controls the exposure based on the photometric results of the respective photometric areas, a center-weighted metering method that controls the exposure by weighting the brightness of a central portion of the captured image (one example of an image area), a partial metering method that performs photometry on several tens of percent of the captured image in a central portion (one example of an image area) and controls the exposure based on the photometric result thereof, and a spot metering method that performs photometry on several percent of the captured image in a central portion (one example of an image area) and controls the exposure based on the photometric result thereof.
As for the image capturing apparatus used in a television conference system (also referred to as a teleconference system and a video conference system) or the like, an image capturing apparatus equipped with a wide-angle lens is used to capture a wide range so as to capture the images of all of the participants in a conference or to convey a realistic feeling of the conference venue. The captured image captured and acquired by the image capturing apparatus having a wide-angle lens results in a distorted captured image due to the characteristics of the wide-angle lens, and thus the captured image is not transmitted to a destination as it is, but transmitted to the destination in a state of the distortion being suppressed by adding a geometrical deformation to the captured image. When the geometrical distortion is added to the captured image, however, the size of the captured image varies, and thus when the exposure is controlled based on the brightness of the captured image before adding the geometrical deformation without considering the variation, optimal exposure control may not be made.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to provide an image capturing apparatus, an exposure control method, and a computer-readable recording medium having a computer program that permit optimal exposure control to be achieved when distortion aberration of a captured image captured and acquired by an image capturing module is corrected.